All hotels in China I have booked through www.elong.net
Jinan
October-November 2008
Main square and the Daminghu park
Unfortunately, I only spent an evening and morning in Jinan instead of the two complete days that I planned. I managed to see only the main square Quan Cheng and spring Baotu that wells out from under the water. The tour of other 71 springs had to be put back for another visit to Jinan.
I made two videos in Jinan. The first one below features the fountain at the main square at night.
video 1
The second one — unusual (for me) singing, also at the main square, but made in the morning. If you know who he is and what he is singing, please write.
video 2
The Harbor Hotel
The Harbor Hotel is just within a 5 minutes drive by taxi from the railway station or 15 minutes walk from it. You can walk to the main square of Jinan for 25 minutes.
When I inquired in the hotel whether they can get me railway ticket, they confirmed it. The hotel clerk made a telephone call somewhere and inquired about the tickets for the trains I needed, but got the reply that there were no tickets. Some doubts raised in me and I decided to go to the railway station myself. It was strange that there were no tickets, - there are four high speed trains from Jinan to Beijing every day. 500 km for 3 hours! Luckily, there were tickets in the railway station booking offices.
The Harbor hotel was good, but the air was stuffy in the bathroom. One day of stay will cost you 320 yuans if you book the hotel through www.elong.net.